Nokia to face Windows Phone competition in China

The Chinese smartphone market has rapidly overtaken the size, if not the value, of the US market.

Nokia is a very strong brand there, but Digitimes notes by the time the company launches its Windows Phone handsets there they may face competition from more nimble Asian competitors already producing Windows Phone 7 handsets in the region.

Noting that Nokiaâ€™s devices will only reach China some time in H1 2012, and have to spend some time adapting to local 3G technologies, they observe Nokiaâ€™s handsets will face competition on the high end from Samsung and HTC and on the low end from entry-level models by ZTE, Huawei Device and Lenovo, who have all thrown their hat into the Windows Phone ring.

With Tango expected to lower the hardware cost of Windows Phone handsets, Digitimes expects even more China-based handset makers to bring out low-priced Tango phones to compete with Nokia Lumia phones.